New High Protein Pancake Recipe

If you have not tried my last Protein Pancake Recipe, you may find it here: Protein Pancakes

This is the second recipe I have created for protein pancakes.  Virtually every protein pancake recipe I have found online leaves out actual pancake mix.  They tend to only use protein powder.  If you have ever tried to cook with protein powder, you know that it has a really rubbery consistency, it’s not very appetizing.  I don’t want to create recipes no one will want to eat or that you have to suffer through to get it down!  What’s the point?

These protein pancakes have even more protein in them than the last batch I made.  A whopping 76 grams for the entire batch!  They also taste great.  Here is the recipe:

You will need something to measure out 2 Cups with.  Fill the 1st Cup up with Muscle Milk Vanilla Protein Powder, then finish filling that Cup up with pancake mix.  Fill the 2nd Cup up with nothing but pancake mix.  Mix in 2.5 cups of organic milk and 1 whole egg.  Just mix in a bowl and cook them up like you would a normal pancake.

These taste great and are easy to make.  It’s a good way to add some vitamins, minerals and protein to your diet.

Pure Protein Chewy Chocolate Chip Protein Bar

Today I am going to be reviewing Pure Protein’s Chewy Chocolate Chip High Protein Bar.

Taste:

While it doesn’t taste exactly like a chocolate chip cookie, it is pretty good.  It’s also a unique flavor for a protein bar.  With most every bar being based on peanut butter in some way, it’s nice to have something to mix things up.

Protein & Nutrition:

Loaded with 20 grams of protein, it’s hard to go wrong here.  The vitamins and minerals are just an added bonus.  For a bar of this size, it packs a lot of punch so I highly recommend it as a meal replacement or just a way to work some more protein into your diet.

Servings:

These come in a box or individually wrapped.  Regardless of if one uses these as a meal replacement or a snack (depending on your goals), these are an inexpensive and healthy addition to your day.

Protein Pancakes

Looking to add a little extra protein to your day?  I tried this out yesterday for breakfast and these taste great!  Just like regular pancakes, I couldn’t tell the difference.  They are simple to make as well.

For a normal pancake recipe you will use 2 cups of pancake mix, what you want to do is replace some of the mix with a scoop of protein powder.  I used 1 scoop of Muscle Milk Vanilla flavor because it tastes like cake batter and works nicely with pancake mix.  So you still only use 2 cups total, you just put your scoop of protein powder in your measuring cup, then fill the rest up with pancake mix.

After that, all you need is 1.5 cups of organic milk and 2 eggs.  Mix it all up well and get to cooking.  This batter has over 50 grams of protein and makes 10-15 pancakes.  If you want even more protein in it you can even use 2 scoops of protein powder and throw in another egg.

Zone Perfect Strawberry Yogurt Nutrition Bar

Today I am going to be reviewing Zone Perfect’s Strawberry Yogurt Nutrition Bar

Taste:
I really like the taste of this Strawberry Yogurt bar.  It’s not just the standard flavors put into every protein/nutrition bar (chocolate, peanut butter, etc).  It’s nice to have some variety and this bar certainly offers that.

Protein & Nutrition:
This nutrition bar contains 14 grams of protein and 18 vitamins and minerals.  It is also all-natural.  It’s hard to go wrong with any of that.  One of the biggest problems with most protein shakes and bars is that they have artificial sweeteners in them, so it’s nice to find a product free of those types of things.

Servings:
These come in a box or individually wrapped.  Regardless of if one uses these as a meal replacement or a snack (depending on your goals), these are an inexpensive and healthy addition to your day.

Strawberry Muscle Milk Product Review

Today I will be reviewing the Srawberry flavor of Muscle Milk by CytoSport.

Taste:
This product tastes pretty good.  It’s maybe a little sweet but I would put it somewhere in between the Vanilla and Chocolate flavors from Muscle Milk.  This is 1 of the top 2 protein shakes I have ever had as far as taste goes.  Taste is pretty important to me because if something tastes so bad I can’t drink it, I’m not going to stick with it no matter how healthy it is.  It does have a very slight artificial sweetener taste, it’s almost unnoticeable most of the time.  This product gets a 9.5 out of 10 on taste.

Protein (and vitamins & minerals):
This is why most people are drinking these shakes in the first place so it’s an important category.  Muscle Milk has 16 grams of protein per serving and is also loaded with about 15-20% of 20 vitamins & minerals.  This isn’t the most protein I have ever seen in a shake (most have about 24 grams) but it does have the vitamins and minerals many other shakes do not have.  I drink mine mixed with 1 cup of milk so I take in 24 grams of protein.  You could also mix this with other ingredients if you wish, like a banana or peanut butter, whatever you like.  It isn’t necessary though, because as I said before, it tastes great.  The serving size is 35 grams, only 16 grams of that is protein, meaning the rest is made up of other ingredients (carbs and fat -2 grams of fiber which is a carb, etc).  This product gets a 8 out of 10 on protein.

Servings:
1 container has 25 servings.   This breaks down to less than $1 per serving.  I eat 5 times a day so having 1 of my meals cost less than $1 (plus the cost of 1 cup of milk) is pretty nice.  Usually with protein shakes, buying in bulk lowers the cost per serving but I bought a smaller container (1.93lbs) just to try it out and see if I liked it.  It’s also nice when a container has about a months supply, so even if you buy the smaller container you only have to buy it once a month.  8.5 out of 10

Artificial ingredients:
In our culture, unless you grow all of your own food, it’s impossible to avoid artificial sweeteners and the like 100%.  That said, I try to avoid them as much as possible.  This product does have a few of them in it, namely acesulfame potassium and sucralose (splenda) but they are among the last ingredients listed, meaning they are the least out of everything in it.  Unfortunately, 95% of protein shakes have at least some of these ingredients in them.  7 out of 10

So overall I like this product and I can actually drink it because it tastes wonderful.  Mixing it with milk I get 24 grams of protein (you don’t want to take in to much at a time anyway since you can only digest so much at once).  For the price it’s good.  I would buy this product again but because I want to avoid artificial sweeteners I will rotate this in with other drinks from time to time instead of just always drinking it.

Overall Score: 8.4 out of 10

Muscle Milk Light Chocolate Peanut Caramel Bar

Today I am going to be reviewing Muscle Milk's chocolate peanut caramel protein bar (light version)

Taste:

This protein bar tastes okay, but it's certainly not the best on out there.  It uses the standard flavors for a protein bar, chocolate, peanuts, caramel.  This isn't a bad thing, it just isn't unique.  Taste = 7.8 out of 10.

Protein & Nutrition:

This protein bar is 45 grams, only 15 of which is protein.  It does have 4 grams of fiber but next to 0% of your daily vitamins and minerals.  Protein & Nutrition =  7.5 out of 10

Servings:

These come in a box or individually wrapped.  The price can vary but you are probably looking at a little over $1 per bar.  This is a pretty good price but I like to keep my meal replacements below $1 per meal since I eat a lot.  Servings = 8.2

Artificial ingredients:

It doesn't look to terrible, but it does have sucralose in it (which is in a lot of protein supplements).  Artificial ingredients = 9 out of 10

 At only 170 calories, it is a good bar for those trying to lose weight, using this as a meal replacement.  It's not terrible but there are other bars out there that are just as good or better.  Personally I will be sticking with those other protein bars for the most part but I might cycle these in from time to time just to break up eating the same things all the time.  Overall score=  8.1 out of 10.

Vanilla Muscle Milk Product Review

Today I will be reviewing the Vanilla flavor of Muscle Milk by CytoSport.   

Taste:
This product tastes a lot of cake batter.  This is 1 of the top 2 protein shakes I have ever had as far as taste goes.  This is pretty important to me because if something tastes so bad you can't drink it, your not going to stick with it no matter how healthy it is.  It does have a very slight artificial sweetener taste, it's almost unnoticeable most of the time.  This product gets a 9.5 out of 10 on taste.

Protein (and vitamins & minerals):
This is why most people are drinking these shakes in the first place so it's an important category.  Muscle Milk has 16 grams of protein per serving and is also loaded with about 15-20% of around 20 vitamins & minerals.  This isn't the most protein I have ever seen in a shake (most have about 24 grams) but it does have the vitamins and minerals many other shakes do not have.  I drink mine mixed with 1 cup of milk so I take in 24 grams of protein.  You could also mix this with other ingredients if you wish, like a banana or peanut butter, whatever you like.  It isn't necessary though, because as I said before, it tastes great.  The serving size is 35 grams, only 16 grams of that is protein, meaning the rest is made up of other ingredients (carbs and fat but this has the good kind mostly-2 grams of fiber which is a carb, etc).  This product gets a 8 out of 10 on protein.

Servings:
1 container has 25 servings.   This breaks down less than $1 per serving.  I eat 5 times a day so having 1 of my meals cost less than $1 (plus the cost of 1 cup of milk) is pretty nice.  Usually with protein shakes, buying in bulk lowers the cost per serving but I bought a smaller container (1.93lbs) just to try it out and see if I liked it.  It's also nice when a container has about a months supply, so even if you buy the smaller container you only have to buy it once a month.  8.5 out of 10

Artificial ingredients:
In our culture, unless you grow all of your own food, it's impossible to avoid artificial sweeteners and the like 100%.  That said, I try to avoid them as much as possible.  This product does have a few of them in it, namely acesulfame potassium and sucralose (splenda) but they are among the last ingredients listed, meaning they are the least out of everything in it.  Unfortunately, 95% of protein shakes have at least some of these ingredients in them.  7 out of 10 

So overall I like this product and I can actually drink it because it tastes wonderful.  Mixing it with milk I get 24 grams of protein (you don't want to take in to much at a time anyway since you can only digest so much at once).  For the price it's good.  I would buy this product again but because I want to avoid artificial sweeteners I will rotate this in with other drinks from time to time instead of just always drinking it. 

Overall Score: 8.4 out of 10

Chocolate Muscle Milk Product Review

Welcome to my first product review!  I will be reviewing exercise equipment, protein powders and other supplements in future reviews.

For my first review I will be reviewing the protein powder Muscle Milk by CytoSport.  I just tried this a few days ago for the first time after hearing positive statements from people I know.

Taste:
This product (I have only tried the chocolate) tastes great.  This is 1 of the top 2 protein shakes I have ever had as far as taste goes.  This is pretty important to me because if something tastes so bad you can't drink it, your not going to stick with it no matter how healthy it is.  It does have a very slight artificial sweetener taste, it's almost unnoticeable most of the time.  This product gets a 9.5 out of 10 on taste.

Protein (and vitamins & minerals):
This is why most people are drinking these shakes in the first place so it's an important category.  Muscle Milk has 16 grams of protein per serving and is also loaded with about 15-20% of around 20 vitamins & minerals.  This isn't the most protein I have ever seen in a shake (most have about 24 grams) but it does have the vitamins and minerals many other shakes do not have.  I drink mine mixed with 1 cup of milk so I take in 24 grams of protein.  You could also mix this with other ingredients if you wish, like a banana or peanut butter, whatever you like.  It isn't necessary though, because as I said before, it tastes great.  The serving size is 35 grams, only 16 grams of that is protein, meaning the rest is made up of other ingredients (carbs and fat but this has the good kind mostly-2 grams of fiber which is a carb, etc).  This product gets a 8 out of 10 on protein.

Servings:
1 container has 25 servings.   This breaks down less than $1 per serving.  I eat 5 times a day so having 1 of my meals cost less than $1 (plus the cost of 1 cup of milk) is pretty nice.  Usually with protein shakes, buying in bulk lowers the cost per serving but I bought a smaller container (1.93lbs) just to try it out and see if I liked it.  It's also nice when a container has about a months supply, so even if you buy the smaller container you only have to buy it once a month.  8.5 out of 10

Artificial ingredients:
In our culture, unless you grow all of your own food, it's impossible to avoid artificial sweeteners and the like 100%.  That said, I try to avoid them as much as possible.  This product does have a few of them in it, namely acesulfame potassium and sucralose (splenda) but they are among the last ingredients listed, meaning they are the least out of everything in it.  Unfortunately, 95% of protein shakes have at least some of these ingredients in them.  7 out of 10 

So overall I like this product and I can actually drink it because it tastes wonderful.  Mixing it with milk I get 24 grams of protein (you don't want to take in to much at a time anyway since you can only digest so much at once).  For the price it's good.  I would buy this product again but because I want to avoid artificial sweeteners I will rotate this in with other drinks from time to time instead of just always drinking it. 

Overall Score: 8.4 out of 10